News Release

The 4th Annual Whatcom WRITES! contest invites local writers to submit entries up to 800 words on the theme of loyalties. Has someone been there for you when you most needed a loyal friend? Or perhaps your loyalty has been tested? How does it feel to stand up for someone - or something - you believe in? Write it -- then submit your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by December 1, 2012.

Whatcom WRITES! is an offshoot of the popular Whatcom READS! program, which encourages everyone in Whatcom County to read and discuss the same book. Bestselling author David Guterson's novel Snow Falling on Cedars has been selected as the 2013 Whatcom READS! title. The book, which is set on an island in the San Juans in the 1940s and 50s, explores many issues relating to loyalties -- to family, to country, to loved
ones.

Visit the Whatcom READS! website at www.whatcomreads.org (scroll down) for complete contest information, including a
video about the contest. Entries
must be sent by email to
whatcomwritespress2013@gmail.com no later than December 1, 2012. Winners will be published in an anthology, and invited to read their work at Village Books. Whatcom READS! and Whatcom WRITES! are a collaborative effort of every library in Whatcom County and Village Books, with funding provided by the Friends of the Bellingham Public Library and the Whatcom County Library Foundation.